MSN to unveil AdWords like PPC program

on Wednesday 3/16/05

[skibum]

So claims the financial times [news.ft.com].

There will be no shortage of advertisers lined up to start pouring money in when it goes live. It would be nice if this turns out to be actual news with a date for launch instead of just another smoke signal about something that is supposed to be launching sometime in the future.

[Chndru]

Why would it hurt Google in the first place?

If anyone is losing, it's Yahoo losing out it's distribution channel (MSN) and thereby losing its profits through OV.

[Qur1uS]

This is a great development....

As far as I can see it, this is only the begining of a huge transfer of $$$ from traditional advertising channels (TV, Radio, Newspapers) to the PPC model. As more and more large companies realize the power of PPC model, and the effectiveness of it, I see great competition.

If you are a publisher, this is a great development as you will have greater selection.

There are no doubt going to be some bumps on the road...but....PPC prices are only going up up and up....

Give it 2 years....this market is going to be on fire...

MSN Google Yahoo ....and don't forget all the other smaller ones....

[christopher w]

Does anyone know the approximate number of advertisers on Overture right now?

[TomWaits]

How does Microsoft get past Yahooverture's patents?

[natim]

Don't expect any major changes right away. Tomorrow will be more of a map on where they want to go. No changes for current sponsors and when program is actually ready will be previewed to current sponsors first.

[cline]

The program open to advertisers with annual spends > $75K (and there are lots and lots of PPC advertisers spending that now on MSN's slice of Overture) is a real kludge. It's available only for high-volume exact-match terms. The price per click is "blended". You negotiate a package of terms with them and MSN gives you a single CPC used for all the terms you select.

[blend27]

now we talking, this is nice..

[mike_ppc]

Still, I think 75K / year ONLY in MSN is far too much.

I mean, not even in G or O there are many big spenders, but to spend 75K in MSN (a small part of O today - 20%?) would be quite difficult!

Of course, they want to take "la creme de la creme", but I don't know if it's the wisest thing to do, especially at the beginning.

Do they have that kind of traffic to supply that huge number of clicks?

[Wlauzon]

The $75K thing is a totally different program.

[BillyS]

The $75K thing is a totally different program.

Exactly right, I remember when I was doing PPC I looked into this program. It is at least a year old.

[TomWaits]

The stuff they put up at [advertising.msn.com...] is simply more vaporware. Read it closely.

[MovingOnUp]

Yes, the link above is working now. The $75k/year is their old program. Their new program is vaporware for now. You can sign up to be notified of updates.

[antman]

It might be too early to look at that link. Maybe they'll update it after the announcement.

"Microsoft's chief executive Steve Ballmer will detail the new advertising system at an MSN advertising summit at the company's Redmond, Washington headquarters on Wednesday."

Also, is this new?
[adcenter.msn.com...]

ant

[Receptional]

http://advertising.msn.com/searchadv/default.asp

Win a trip to Hawaii....

....Hooray!

Open only to U.S. residents employed as search advertising professionals, search marketers and small business owners in the US. See full rules for details...

...Boo! :(

[Spudstr]

75k isn't much, i know we almost half of that between overture and google in ONE month! iknow a good number of other firms that do as much if not more too. and thats just on PPC.

[finer9]

anyone noticed [adcenter.msn.com?...] I have...!

[cline]

The video [advertising.msn.com] is actually pretty informative about the new program, but you have to go to the last 1/4 of the presentation to get to the good stuff.

[Chicago]

Day parsing. Gender Targeting. Agency Controls. and more.

[incrediBILL]

The video is actually pretty informative

Interesting.... but now I suddenly remember why I stopped going to MS Conferences years ago. By the time they actually get to their point I'm usually face down drooling on the table in a hyperbole induced coma.

[MovingOnUp]

For those who want to skip straight to the part about AdCenter, go to about 33:40.

Very interesting stuff. You can change bids based on audience parameters (gender, age, etc.).

[sem4u]

Very interesting video. Quick summary:

Testing will be in France and Singapore.

Data from Hotmail, Messenger registrations, etc. will be used, i.e. gender, age, wealth index.

Exact, phrase and broadmatch options will be available.

An Excel like interface will be used to add bids.

Ability to test different ads for the same keywords.

There will be an API.

Ads can be set to run by keyword, search location, hours of the day, day of the week, age, gender.

Ad position will be set by bid price and click through rate.

Rich conversion data, including conversion by age and gender.

Can't wait to try it! :)

[roycerus]

In a move that could eventually eliminate the need for MSN to share ad revenue with archrival Yahoo (Quote, Chart), MSN announced it would begin testing its own online advertising platform. The move follows the January 2005 rollout of MSN's built-from-scratch search technology.

[internetnews.com...]

[herb]

Screen Shots of AdCenter [searchenginelowdown.com]

and second shot [searchenginelowdown.com]

"What is really cool, and not shown in the static images, is that the graphs are all animated"

httX://www.searchenginelowdown.com/2005/03/first-screenshots-of-msn-adcenter.html

[vitaplease]

So that will basically kill Yahoverture in Europe for the non-English/Spanish markets.

I'm also very interested how the whole patents issue will develop ads/publ wise.

[PhoneGuy]

This is a very interesting; I can’t wait to see AdCenter to take off. I would love to see AdCenter replace Overture for MSN keywords. I think this will be good for competition between the 3 major search engs (Google, Yahoo and MSN).

[decaff]

According to One Source:

"According to Microsoft, the new tool will be tested first in France and Singapore for six months, and then rolled out in the United States. Microsoft said it would keep using Overture Services provided by Yahoo for its search ad sales until the contract expiration in 2006."

here's the link to this source:

Microsoft unveiled online advertising platform [ebcvg.com]